Thursday, April 28, 2011

If our baby was born today, he would have a 25% chance of surviving. His odds get better every week he stays in utero. The good news is that my blood pressure is still normal and hasn't begun to rise yet, so there's no danger of an early delivery at this point. I'm crossing my fingers that it stays down for awhile longer!

Dr. P. did a thorough echo of the baby's heart as well. Everything looks totally normal. Her thought is that if he actually has inherited any sort of heart defect from me, it's very minor and won't be detectable until after birth. He definitely doesn't have anything as severe as my defect was as it would have been very obvious on the echo by this point. So that's great news!

He gained over half a pound over the last two weeks, which explains why I've been so tired lately. His growth is on target for his age and he's in the 51% percentile, which is great. If my blood pressure had started to be an issue, we'd expect him to be below the 10% percentile.

Last week I overdid it a bit and had quite a few braxton hicks contractions and some brown spotting. I'm still getting contractions any time I stand for more than 20ish minutes. However, they aren't the painful kind and they go away if I lay down, so Dr. P isn't too concerned at this point. She advised me to continue limiting my activity since it's pretty clear that my body can't handle very much. :-/

I can now frequently see him moving my belly around. That is so weird! He's also starting to respond to loud noises -- Tracy whistled at my belly last night and he responded with a hard kick!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Yesterday was ultrasound #12. This little guy has a huge array of pictures already, starting at 5 days post conception and then every other week (at least) until now. My sister made a beautiful baby shower signing board with some of the ultrasound photos. I can't wait to fill in the empty spot with a newborn shot in a few short months...

Everything continues to go well. Baby is growing normally and is as active as always. My blood pressure was at the lowest it's been yet, which made my nurse happy. I've had a few braxton hicks contractions, but those are perfectly normal and they are few and far between so far. Since I've gone 5 weeks without bleeding, I'm finally allowed to increase my activity level somewhat. Dr. P. said I can do light walking for 15 minutes, but then need to sit for 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure I can handle longer than that since a few of our recent shopping trips have been well over an hour (whoops).

Last weekend my mom, sister, grandmother, and aunt hosted a family baby shower for me. It went really well and I was really touched by how generous everyone was. Thank you all so much!!! Between the clothes my friends have given us and the baby shower gifts, this baby is going to be well-equipped. We squeezed as much stuff as we could into our soaker tub since it makes a great storage vessel now that I can't take hot baths. We have another pile of boxes along the wall in our bedroom. I'm looking forward to decorating the nursery in a couple of months. =)

About Me

My husband, Chad, and I were married in May '08. We live in Orange County, CA with our 3 cats and our whippet puppy.
We've been trying for our first child since January of '09. However, it's been rather difficult with five miscarriages caused by poor egg quality, a clotting disorder, or both.
We got lucky on our first IVF cycle and I got pregnant with our son, Eli. While my pregnancy was complicated by placenta previa and frequent sub-chorionic hematomas, Eli was born perfectly healthy at 38 weeks.

The Timeline So Far...

January '09 -- Our journey begins.July '09 -- First pregnancy.August '09 -- 7 week ultrasound showed a tiny embryo with a heartbeat, but the sac around it was very small. I miscarried a week later.October '09 -- After months of charting my cycles, I realized that I had a Luteal Phase Defect (the time between ovulation and my period was too short). Asked my OB for a referral to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE).November '09 -- Second pregnancy.December '09 -- 6 week ultrasound again showed an abnormal sac. My RE scheduled a D & C for the following week. The day before the surgery, the baby had a heartbeat, so we cancelled the D & C.January '10 -- Miscarried at 10 weeks.March '10 -- Fertility testing revealed I have a high FSH level of 12.8. RE recommended ovarian stimulation injections and either IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) or IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization). We chose IUI and I wound up with a chemical pregnancy.May '10 -- Second IUI, second chemical pregnancy.June '10 -- Operative hysteroscopy to remove a fibroid.July '10 -- Fifth pregnancy (natural).August '10 -- Consecutive ultrasounds showed nothing. Ectopic suspected, so I was given methotrexate and miscarried at 8 weeks.September '10 -- New RE and recurrent pregnancy loss testing. Discovered I have anticardiolipin antibodies and will need to be on blood thinners while pregnant.October '10 -- Operative hysteroscopy & removed another fibroid and polyp. Started birth control pills in preparation for IVF.November '10 -- First IVF cycle: antagonist protocol. I only produced 3 eggs on maximum stimulation. We transferred two 5 day embryos on the 29th.December '10 -- Found out I was pregnant with twins! But only 1 heartbeat at 6 weeks 5 days.January '11 -- Lost the second twin, but the first is doing great.February '11 -- It's a boy!August '11 -- Eli Anderle was born on August 5th, 2011July '12 -- Begin TTC for #2Oct '12 -- IUI and positive pregnancy testJan '13 -- Never saw anything on the ultrasound, assumed ectopic pregnancy. Finally ended early in the month.Feb '13 -- high dose Follistim IUI. I produced 4 eggs, but didn't get pregnant.May '13 -- Surprise natural BFP!Oct '13 - Lucas Alexander born still on October 4th, 2013 at 24 weeks. We will miss him forever. :-(